(no subject)

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Tomorrow Mary turns thirteen.

The cook is going to make a cake and she is to be let off lessons. Other than that she's not really sure what to make of this; despite the cold weather, she's sitting outside by her tree (now bare) in her garden, trying to decide.

Comments

[wolflord_andain]

"You might consider it an anthropological study, seeing as I'm hardly human."

That dryness isn't going anywhere.

"But as to that, if I am forced to cancel lessons, I daresay I can hardly fail to note the occasion that requires such a great sacrifice on my part."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Do you -" Mary says, startled, and then squints at him suspiciously before identifying, "You are being sarcastic."

Mary has wonderful deductive skills.

"Anyways you are not hardly human. Half is not hardly. I know my fractions, anyways."

[wolflord_andain]

One corner of Galadan's mouth twitches upward. Fractionally.

"I am of the andain. It is nothing at all like being human--or so evidence suggests. Though you have little basis for comparison at this juncture--fortunately for us both."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"I can only compare you against other people," Mary agrees, frowning, "and while you are certainly not like most people, that does not mean a great deal. Many people may be strange. I am strange."

[wolflord_andain]

"Strange yet explicable."

His lip twitches again.

"Disheartening as that may be for you to hear."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary looks extremely dignified in Galadan's general direction.

"It is not disheartening. I am very well aware that I am explicable. It is because I act sensibly. This is strange because very few people do."

OBVIOUSLY.

[wolflord_andain]

"Provided one allows for the definition of sensible to be infinitely variable--I'm quite sure I cannot disagree with your assertion."

Galadan's sense of humor may be less explicable than Mary, so far as that goes.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

It would help if Mary had a sense of humor at all, too.

His response takes Mary a few moments to parse, but when she finally works through it, she frowns.

"There are only a very few choices in any given situation that are sensible. Sometimes it may be different depending on what people can do - but not so different as all that."

[wolflord_andain]

"When one is planning ten moves ahead, Mary, sensible tends to take on a different meaning."

Not that he expects her to understand this. Yet.

But one day--

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary takes a beat to consider this.

"You are talking about strategy."

All the Roman historians have paid off to some extent, at any rate.

The wind is cold; Mary leans forward and wraps her arms around her knees, putting her chin on top of them.

"I do not know if strategy and sense are the same thing."

[wolflord_andain]

"Then how, if I may be so bold, should you choose to differentiate them?"

This may or may not be intended to be a lesson. It hardly makes much of a difference, now does it?

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary shoots him a Look at the 'if I may be so bold' - he is her teacher, and he asks her things like this all the time; there is no need to be ironical - before lapsing into thoughtfulness.

"Strategy is cleverness," she says, finally, "but it is not always sense. Strategy is about winning but sometimes it is more sensible not to be fighting."

Obviously this whole 'more sensible not to be fighting' thing is something that Mary feels applies much more to other people than to her. But.

[wolflord_andain]

"And recognizing that, of course, is yet another facet of strategy. You might take care to remember that, Mary. It's far too easy a factor to overlook."

Galadan speaks from experience, here.

Just don't try getting him to admit that.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"I do," Mary says, rather indignantly.

"But I do not think it is always strategy. For there to be strategy you must be wanting to win something."

[wolflord_andain]

Galadan's eyebrow arches fair to hit his hairline.

"And do you truly imagine that there is a moment in which a man or woman is not looking to win something?"

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Yes!" Mary says, startled - both by the question, and by the undeniably impressive eyebrow arch.

[wolflord_andain]

"Do go on. I'm curious to hear at which point you believe such events might come to pass."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"When you are just talking to people. That you know - people that you like, I mean. If it is people that you do not like, perhaps you are trying to beat them," she admits, "but if it is people that you do you do not always need to be winning something."

[wolflord_andain]

Were Galadan another man he might ruffle Mary's hair. She is very young. He has never had cause to forget that.

"I may, I suppose, hope that such a belief serves you well. I find it doubtful, as your world is not so very different from my own."

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"Perhaps not - but if you are always trying to win, of course other people are going to be trying to win too," Mary says, slowly - puzzling it out as she goes.

"And you always are because you are always thinking of strategy.

If neither of the people who are talking is trying to win then - then it is different."

[wolflord_andain]

"And do you suppose you shall ever have a guarantee that your--conversational partner, as it were--has no agenda of his or her own?"

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

"There are some people that I know do not have - have agendas. Not for me, anyways."

The word Mary is looking for, and not finding right at the moment, is 'trust'.

[wolflord_andain]

"Perhaps not sinister agendas--that I'll grant you freely."

Is he still teasing? The arch of his eyebrows suggests he may well be.

[mistressmaryquitecontrary]

Mary eyes him.

"I do not think that 'I do not wish you to die' counts as an agenda."

[wolflord_andain]

"And that, I believe is where you are mistaken, Mary. An agenda such as that is one that will influence a man's--or woman's--actions for a very long time. You would do well to be aware of it."

Galadan's own agenda for Mary, such as it is--

Well. That is neither here nor there, at the moment.

Or is it?